Haber in, Muscat out as Malta prepare to fly to Georgia

Malta coach John Buttigieg yesterday named his 18-man squad for Friday’s Euro 2012 Group F qualifier against Georgia in Tbilisi.

As expected, the inclusion of goalkeeper Justin Haber in the provisional squad all but dashed Mario Muscat’s chances of retaining his place in Buttigieg’s party for Malta’s third Euro 2012 assignment.

With Valletta’s Andrew Hogg now regarded as the no.1 choice, the race for the second goalkeeper’s spot in the Malta selection was effectively a two-way fight between Hibs’ ­veteran netminder Muscat and Haber, the latter having fully recovered from the hand injury that kept him out of the opening qualifiers against Israel (1-3) and Latvia (0-2).

Buttigieg decided in favour of Haber who, on Saturday, kept goal for Ferencvaros’s second team in a 3-1 home victory over Veszprém.

In addition to Muscat and Anthony Curmi, the Tarxien Rainbows goalkeeper who has yet to earn his first call-up for Malta, Birkirkara winger Trevor Cilia and Ivan Woods, of Floriana, have also been omitted from the initial 22-man squad Buttigieg released on Friday.

André Schembri, who played the full 90 minutes of Ferencvaros’s 3-0 victory over MTK Budapest on Friday, is back in the national team’s frame after a lapse of one year.

The Ferencvaros duo were expected to arrive in Malta yesterday ahead of the squad’s departure to Tbilisi this afternoon.

Andrei Agius is the other foreign-based player in Malta’s travelling party. The defender was due to land in Malta early this morning after being involved in AS Melfi’s Lega Pro 2 match against Milazzo (1-1) yesterday.

Birkirkara defender Joseph Zerafa, 22, has been handed his first call-up to a Malta squad.

The most notable absentee from Malta’s roster is Daniel Bogdanovic. The Sheffield United forward is ruled out by suspension after collecting two bookings in Malta’s opening qualifiers.

Meanwhile, Georgia coach Temuri Ketsbaia has called up three U-21 players to his squad for the qualifiers against Malta and Latvia.

Nika Kvekveskiri, FC Baia Zugdidi’s 18-year-old defender, is the most eye-catching in-clusion while Murtaz Daushvili, 21, and Irakli Klimiashvili, 22, have already made their senior debut.

Georgia have two points from two matches after collecting a pair of draws, 1-1 away to Greece and 0-0 at home to Israel.

Malta squad

Goalkeepers: J. Haber (Ferencvaros), A. Hogg (Valletta).

Defenders: A. Agius (AS Melfi), J. Caruana (Valletta), M. Grima (Ħamrun), E. Herrera (Hibs), C. Mamo (Marsaxlokk), J. Zerafa (Birkirkara).

Midfielders: S. Bajada (Birkir-kara), R. Briffa (Valletta), P. Fenech (Birkirkara), R. Fenech (Ħamrun), J. Pace (Valletta), K. Sammut (Valletta), G. Sciberras (Marsaxlokk).

Forwards: A. Cohen (Hibernians), M. Mifsud (no club), A. Schembri (Ferencvaros).

Georgia squad

Goalkeepers: N. Revishvili (FC Anzhi Makhachkala), G. Loria (Dinamo Tbilisi), G. Bediashvili (FC Olimpi Rustavi).

Defenders: K. Kaladze (Genoa), M. Asatiani (Lokomotiv Moscow), A. Amisulashvili (Kayserispor), Z. Khizanishvili (Reading), L. Salukvadze (Rubin Kazan), U. Lobzhanidze (Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk), M. Gvinianidze (TSV 1860 Munich), N. Kvekveskiri (Baia Zugdidi).

Midfielders: D. Kvirkvelia (Rubin Kazan), G. Gogua (Spartak Nalchik), L. Kobiashvili (Hertha Berlin), G. Merebashvili (Vojvodina), J. Ananidze (Spartak Moscow), A. Koshkadze (Dinamo Tbilisi), M. Daushvili ( Zestafoni), I. Klimiashvili (WIT Georgia).

Forwards: D. Siradze (Spartak Nalchik), A. Iashvili (Karlsruhe), V. Dvalishvili (Maccabi Haifa), N. Gelashvili (Zestafoni).